This invention relates to a pallet, system and method for use in testing and/or installing software onto a personal computer (PC) system unit.
This application relates to U.S. application Ser. No. 08/919,959, filed on Aug. 29, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,995,757, entitled Software Installation and Testing For A Build-To-Order Computer System, naming Richard D. Amberg, Roger W. Wong and Michael A. Brundridge, as inventors. The application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and is assigned to the assignee of this invention.
This application relates to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/921,438, filed on Aug. 29, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,963,743, entitled Database For Facilitating Software Installation And Testing For A Build-To-Order Computer System, naming Richard D. Amberg, Roger W. Wong and Michael A. Brundridge as inventors. The co-pending application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and is assigned to the assignee of this invention.
This application relates to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/150,800, filed on Sep. 10, 1998, entitled Automatic Location Determination of Devices Under Test, naming Subhashini Rajan and Robert W. Wong as inventors. The co-pending application is incorporated by reference in its entirety, and is assigned to the assignee of this invention.
This application relates to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/177,420, filed on Oct. 22, 1998, entitled Troubleshooting Computer Systems During Manufacturing Using State and Attribute Information, naming Subhashini Rajan, Robert W. Wong and Richard D. Amberg as inventors. The co-pending application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, and is assigned to the assignee of this invention.
The final stages of the manufacture of a PC with preloaded software require the software to be downloaded onto the PC system unit and for the PC system unit to be extensively tested. At present, the requirement for operator access to connect power and data (parallel port) connectors to the PC system unit imposes a height limit on the rack used to accommodate the PC system unit during these operations. As, typically, many PC system units are tested and have their software installed at the same time, a large amount of floor space is taken up by these units.
Therefore, what is needed is to provide a pallet, system and method for use in testing and/or installing software onto a PC system unit which will allow the units to be placed on a rack at a height out of the normal reach of the operator so that a more effective use of floor space can be achieved.